Visiting Haiti

Recently I was fortunate enough to go on a trip with 11 others to Pwoje Espwa, a children's refuge near Les Cayes, Haiti. We spent six days there, which was a great learning experience for me. We helped paint a couple of homes that young boys were staying in, had a mini track and field meet, played soccer, and brought down over 1000 pound of useful supplies to help the village.

We arrived in Port au Prince and rode in a large van, where I got to really see the hustle and bustle of the city. The road was rather chaotic, with street vendors knocking on the car window while trying to sell muffins and drinks. The rules of the road were new to me: honk if you are passing, honk if people are walking too close, and honk for a long time if you don't think someone sees you. There were many motorcycles weaving in between cars as well, so it was really an action-packed ride. This was so exciting that I actually threw up after a couple of hours (fortunately I was able to give warning and hop out of the van to take care of business). We arrived at Pwoje Espwa a few hours later, where we unpacked some of our things and took a breather.

Over the next few days, we had lots of interaction with the kids who live in the village, and a few that live in the surrounding community that hang out in the area. So many of them were really happy and I had a lot of fun playing with them. We played baseball, soccer, and ran some races with some of the kids (in total something like 600 kids live on the premises). There are older boys (and a few girls) living there too, and it was interesting to hear some of their interests. Many of them were interested in music and dance, and it was very entertaining seeing them perform. Some of the kids (ok they are around 20 years old, so I should probably say young men) have a group that performed for us. They have a youtube video (see below)which they had help from a local studio to produce. I think its really good, so check it out!

Of course, not everything we saw was so positive. While it is believed that the country has made some progress since the devastating earthquake in 2010, there is still a lot of work to be done. Sanitation is nothing like you would expect in the US. Many roads are in really poor shape, and of course, housing for many is quite minimal.

I did see first hand, though, that there are a lot of kids with hope and desire to make positive impacts in Haiti. They have goals to become doctors, businesspeople, wood-workers, welders, and many other great things. It was really the best part of being down there.

We left Les Cayes on one of the days to go to a beach community about an hour away called Port Salut. This town has a beautiful beach, not so different from other places in the caribbean. While it wasn't too busy, it did show me that Haiti does have some potential to attract more tourists.

Visiting Haiti was a great experience for me and everyone who went on the trip. If you or anyone you know is thinking about doing a mission trip to Haiti, I definitely reccommend it. Pwoje Espwa was a great place to stay and I think they are really doing excellent work.  

Great River Bluffs State Park (MN)

I recently got the chance to visit Great River Bluffs State Park, which is located just south of Winona. I camped at the park with a few friends (and one dog). We all had a pretty good time, seeing some great fall colors and wonderful views of the Mississippi river. It was a cold weekend, though, so having the appropriate clothing made the trip comfortable.

We arrived in the early afternoon on a Saturday and set up our tent right away. The dog being just a puppy, we tied his leash to a picnic table (park rules, and for our own sanity). We set up the sleeping arrangements so we wouldn't have to in the cold night, and had some lunch.

After that, we went on a short hike to check out some of the views. The first overlook we went to was about a quarter mile from our campsite, named "The Hill of many Timbers". It is the southern-most overlook in the park. Next, we went to the "East Overlook", which is about a half mile from the Hill of Many Timbers. Both of these overlooks provided nice views. The Hill of Many Timbers primary views were of the hills in Minnesota and some of the park roads. The East Overlook had views of the Mississippi river and of Wisconsin in the distance.

After checking out those views, we decided to head back to camp and get some dinner going. We made hobo hot dish this time around and had some chips as well. We got a solid fire going, though we were careful that it didn't get too big as it had been a really dry season and didn't want the fire to spread. We put the fire out and went to sleep, the puppy joining us in the tent. It was a little under 30, which was a bit cold for this dog, but he stayed warm by sneaking himself in betweeen two of us.

The next day we walked over to the North and South Overlooks, which are a little over a mile from the campground, but only .2 miles from eachother. The trail over there runs through the woods, and there is an minor overlook on the way there as well. These overlooks both had great views of the Mississippi and Wisconsin as well, and made for a rewarding hike. We didn't make our way over to the other overlooks, which include "King's Bluff", as the puppy was a little too tired. We still had a good time, though, and having a sleeping dog on the way home is better than having a dog with energy in the car!

Visiting Banff National Park

After visiting Glacier National Park in Montana (see my previous post), my friends and I headed north into British Columbia. We stayed a night in a small campground just across the border and took off early in the morning. It didn't take long for our drive to get scenic that day.

We entered Kootenay National park (still in British Columbia) and drove though seeing beautiful scenery. In addition to the mountains, we also came across a group of bighorn sheep. We made a few stops in the park to take pictures, but our goal was to get to Banff National park, so we moved on.

We entered Banff (Alberta), and headed up to Lake Louise. Lake Louise has an iconic view from the large hotel. The lake is an almost unreal blue and then there are the mountains and (Victoria) glacier in the background. Just stunning. Not far away is Moraine lake, home of the ten peaks. This was pretty. I remember seeing this view as a background for an old phone. To see it in person was really quite impressive.

We took tons of pictures during our time at Lake Louise and Moraine lake before heading south to Banff, the town. We went shopping and ate in town that night, before spending the night in a campground. Again, we woke up early, this time to go mountain biking. We didn't hit up any really crazy terrain, but we had fun making our way around town on our rented bikes. I did tear a shirt, though, so I suppose I can brag about that!

Banff was so beautiful that I would love to go back some day. Not sure when that will be, but it will remain on my list.

Backpacking in Glacier National Park

A few weeks ago I went on a road trip with a few friends. Our first big destination was Glacier National Park. We arrived in St. Mary, Montana in the late evening after driving from Bismarck, North Dakota. We got a campsite, grabbed some dinner, and went to bed early with the intention of getting up early enough to get a permit with some solid campsites for our backpacking trip starting the next day.

We succeeded in getting up early and tearing down our camp quickly, and made our way to the Two medicine ranger station a few minutes before they opened up. We were the first in line, but barely. We got into the station and I came with a few of the ideas that I had in mind for trips. I already had some knowledge of what could be available, as the park has a website showing which sites are available which nights, but i didn't know if when i looked at the site was the most up to date as possible. Fortunately, I was able to figure out a route that seemed to make sense. $60 later ($5 per person per night) and we were off!

Our first day consisted of us heading out of the Two Medicine Ranger station and ending at the Upper Park Creek campground. This wasn't easy. We ascended about 2500 feet to the summit of "Chief Lodgepole peak", and descended about 2800 feet to our campground, 11.7 miles from our start. We arrived at the campground tired and thirsty. We were also weary of what we would have to do in two days: cross two medicine pass again to get back! We had a good dinner (a friend packed some Mountain House Lasagna) and enjoyed our company around the campfire.

On the Second day, we made a decision to do a day hike to Lake Isabel, about 2.5 miles from Upper Park Creek. Our permit actually had us staying there overnight, but by not staying there, we saved ourselves for the next day, where we would have to hike to Upper Two Medicine Campground, which was already a 12 mile hike from Upper Park Creek. If we were to have gone from Lake Isabel, it would have been closer to 15 miles! Lake Isabel was a nice looking alpine lake, with good fishing according to some of the people we ran into. We went for a swim and hiked back to Upper Park Creek Campground before dinner.

On the third day, we had our big hike: back over two medicine pass and over to Upper Two Medicine Campground. We woke up early, made sure we had plenty of water, and got off to a strong start. We took several short breaks on our way up the pass, many of which included picking huckleberries. Once we got to the top of Chief Lodgepole again, we took a long break to celebrate the finish of the toughest part of our hike. We made good progress down to Twin Falls, where we took another long break. By this time, we were pretty close to our destination, Upper Two Medicine Campground.

Upper Two Medicine Camp was very scenic, and shortly after having dinner we saw two moose. This was a great place to stay, though campfires weren't allowed, so we didn't end up staying up too late.

On the Final day of our trip, we left Upper Two Medicine and made our way back to Two Medicine Campground/Ranger station. This was about 5 miles, and not too tough of terrain. When we arrived at the campground, we washed our faces, put our packs in the car, and picked up some goodies at the gift shop.

It was a great hike, totaling about 34 miles through a beautiful place. We left in need of showers, but in awe of the scenery.  

Kayaking the Brule River (WI)

I haven't done a lot of kayaking, and absolutely none on an actual river until last weekend, when I went on a trip on the Brule river in Northern Wisconsin.

The Bois Brule river flows into Lake Superior, and my friends and I did a section that starts at "Pine Tree Landing", which is just off Dead end road, and ends at highway 13, which is a few miles down the river.

I got off to a slow start as I was right behind a few of my friends in a canoe that lost control and then I ran into them, filling up my kayak with water in seconds. So I hopped out of the kayak and with the help of a friend, drained it. After that, i was careful not to follow anyone too closely. The river was quite low, and my friends who were in canoes ended up abandoning the trip due to their slow progress and a hole that appeared in their old boat.

The meandering river offered many highlights, including several sections with rapids that kept everyone alert. There were a few ledges that i rode over with caution, but i still got a decent amount of water in my kayak. It was an adrenaline rush. My favorite part, though, was when there was a slow current and I could just relax and enjoy nature while still making some progress down the river.

The trip took us quite a long time as there were 6 of us in kayaks and we tried to stay together as best as we could, so there was a lot of waiting around. Even so, it was worth going. If I go again, though, I'll try to get a skirt for the kayak so i don't have to empty the water out so often!

The highest Point in Iowa, Hawkeye Point

I know I left the readers for a real cliffhanger in my last post http://jonsconquests.blogspot.com/2012/07/climbing-at-blue-mounds-state-park-mn.html , so I've decided to tell everyone where we were off to after visiting Palisades State Park in South Dakota. We went to the highest point in Iowa, Hawkeye Point.

We were pretty tired by the time we actually hit the road to go to Hawkeye Point, as we had been climbing and it was really hot outside. Fortunately it wasn't too far of a drive from eastern South Dakota.

When we arrived at Hawkeye Point, we were pleasantly surprised. Despite being the easiest highpoint I've been to as far as sheer effort from where I parked my car (yes, this was easier than Rhode Island), this was actually a pretty neat place. No, there wasn't an incredible view of anything other than fields, but the spot is well taken care of. I enjoyed looking at some pictures in a barn and liked seeing the arrows pointing in the directions of the other highpoints. I also liked the mosaic compass (pictured above). People really put some work into this place!

While I don't think I'll be returning to Hawkeye Point anytime soon, it was a great example of why I like highpointing- going places you normally never would can turn out to be interesting.

Climbing at Blue Mounds State Park (MN) and Palisades State Park (SD)

On a recent weekend, I made the trek to southwestern Minnesota to go camping and climbing at Blue Mounds State Park, near Luverne. It was around a 4 hour drive, so  we were hoping for a great experience. We were not disappointed.

On Friday night it was raining as we set up our tents (it was also dark out as we got there around 10 pm), so we had to be quick. It rained overnight, and I woke up somewhere around 4:30. A little too early for me, but  I tried and couldn't fall back asleep, so eventually got up. It wasn't really raining too late into the morning, but we knew it would be too wet to climb until later in the day. So we went to a local diner and had breakfast to kill some time and avoid eating oatmeal packets.

After a few hours, the rock dried out and the climbs were set up. It was really fun and we had a couple of very challenging routes to try. I wasn't able to complete the 5.12, but I did get the 5.10, a route with a great heel hook to get over a small roof. There were several other routes, and I think they were in the 5.7-5.9 range. After several hours, we were tired, and took a break by swimming in the lake at the park. Afterwards, we ate and eventually sat next to a campfire and stared at the stars. It was a clear night and the stars were really shining.



The next day we woke up a bit sore from the long day of climbing, but we ended up going again, only this time we made our way to Palisades State Park in South Dakota, something like 20 miles west of Blue Mounds state park. There were some really cool rock features along a river there. We set up the climbs, and began climbing, although not nearly as hard or as long as the previous day as we had a long drive home (and had some other plans, which I'll mention in a later post). It was also very hot, so we got pretty tired. With that said, this was definitely a really cool place. I had no idea that eastern South Dakota had such cool landscapes. I definitely want to go back.


Visiting the two state parks was really a great time, and I definitely recommend visiting either of them if you have the chance. They aren't too far from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, so if you are ever in that area, keep these places in mind!